Reactions: DinoThunder
by RedAsARose
Summary: Zack's reaction as he discovers who the new black ranger is.
1. Chapter 1

**This story might make better sense if you take a few minutes to read my previous story, Reactions: Zeo :) Happy reading!**

**Disclaimer: My day job is that I'm an executive producer of Power Rangers. ...JK. It's not mine.**

_"Oh, so now you're a Tommy?" Zack said humorously, and they all laughed at their ongoing joke about Tommy becoming colors that no one else had been.  
><em>_-Reactions: Zeo_

_"Zack, I promise I will ask you if I ever decide to become a black. Now will you leave the color thing alone already?"  
>-Tommy in R:Z<em>

_"I'm gold, not black, so Zack doesn't have to worry about it."  
>-Jason in R:Z<em>

**EIGHT YEARS LATER**

_Riiing_

_Riiing_

_Riiing_

_SMASH!_

_Riiiiiiing_

_Riiiiiing_

_Riiiiiing_

_"What?"_

"Jason, man, turn on the TV!"

"Wha'?" Jason rolled over and fumbled with the lamp next to the bed.

"Turn on the TV! You have to see this! And why didn't you pick up your house phone?"

"I threw it at the wall," Jason mumbled, still half asleep. "Zack, is that you? What do you want? What do I need to see?"

"Just turn on the TV!" Zack practically shouted.

Trini stirred on the bed next to Jason. "Jase? What's going on? What's wrong?"

Jason mumbled something else that was indistinct, and staggered over to grab the remote off his dresser and switch on the TV. "Okay, what channel? And this better be good or I'm gonna get my T-Rex to tear apart your Mastodon. And I'm sure a certain Saber Tooth Tiger wouldn't mind helping."

"What does Zack want?" Trini moaned, rolling over and putting a pillow over her head. "Didn't he understand the last time that we're not late night partiers like he is?"

But Jason wasn't listening. He was transfixed with the footage playing on almost every channel. "Hey babe, check this out."

"I'll presume you're not talking to me," Zack muttered.

"What?" Trini murmured.

"Rangers."

"Rangers?" she mumbled from under her pillow. "I thought they defeated Luthor?"

"_New _rangers."

Trini sat up so quickly Jason wouldn't have guessed she was practically sleep talking two seconds earlier.

"New rangers? Nice! Well, I mean, not _nice _nice…I guess it means someone's trying to take over our planet again, but you get what I mean."

"Wait, Zack," Jason said into the phone again. "This really couldn't wait until morning?"

"It is morning," Zack replied.

"It _is_ morning?! Yeah, _four_ in the morning!"

"Never mind what time it is…_look _at them!"

"And _what_ am I looking for?"

"There's a black one."

"So?" The breaking news program broke from the anchors in the studio to footage of a black ranger fighting nasty looking dead dinosaur type things. "Oh. They didn't bother calling you again? That sucks man. Good night," Jason said pointedly.

"No, Jase-_look at him!"_

"Why? Can't I just dream about him instead?" Jason practically whined.

"Uh, Jason?" Trini asked, squinting at the TV screen. "That black ranger? It kind of seems like…"

Jason looked again to the screen, to see what his friend and wife were going on about. "Yeah, uh…kind of looks like Tommy's style. Okay, you happy? _Good night!_"

Trini looked at him pointedly, and Zack waited for him to realize it.

"Oh," Jason said slowly. "It's Tommy…" he suddenly jumped up. "_HOLY CRAP! It's freaking TOMMY! _Ha ha! This is great! He's a fourth color!" He did a little dance in place. "Now he's _black _too? Ah ha ha ha ha! I'm so sorry buddy," he said to Zack, who was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment. "This was definitely worth the call at an unholy hour. …Zack? Hey, you still there?"

"Tommy. Is. Black," Zack muttered darkly.

"Yeah…" Jason said slowly, waiting for him to continue. And then it hit him. "Oh! Tommy's black! I get it! …ohh…hang on…He didn't tell you, did he?"

"I have to go," Zack said bluntly. "Talk to you later."

"No, Zack, wait!" Jason said, but the dial tone was already sounding.

"Oh great," Trini said, sinking back into the pillow. "You think we should warn Tommy?"

"Nah," Jason said, getting back into bed and pulling the covers up. "He should have asked Zack. He knows that."

"He probably forgot."

"Which makes this even more fun for me!" Trini hit him again. "Okay, okay, I'll call Tommy."

"Take it outside," Trini said, rolling over and closing her eyes again.

Once in the safety of the kitchen, Jason grabbed a beer from the fridge (this was definitely a 'celebratory beer at four AM' moment) and opened his cell phone to call Tommy.

It rang a few times before Tommy answered groggily, and rather harshly. "Go to bed, Connor!"

"Nope," Jason said happily, taking a sip of beer. "Try again."

"Jason? Oh. Hey man. Sorry, thought you were Connor. I gave them my number in case something happened and they needed it. Bad idea."

"But what could possibly happen?" Jason asked innocently, and as if it was perfectly normal to be having this conversation at four in the morning. "And who is this Connor chap?"

"Connor is-oh…uh…no one. What do you want?" Jason heard him shuffling around a bit. "Dude. It's four in the morning."

"I thought you were going to stop saying 'dude' now that you're a teacher."

"What do you want?" Tommy repeated.

"Nothing!" Jason said innocently. "I just wanted to see how my multi-colored doctor friend is doing! Is there something wrong with that?"

"Your multi-colored doctor…?" Tommy muttered to no one in particular.

"Yep," Jason said, taking another sip. "Emphasis on the _multi_."

"Ah. Right," Tommy said, catching on. "Uh…so…I _might_ be…you know…"

"Oh yeah, I know," Jason said, smiling. "The question is, does _Zack_ know?"

"I don't know. _I_ didn't tell him."

"You mean, you didn't _ask_ him," Jason corrected, enjoying this more and more.

"Why would I-? Oh. Oh… Ooh…" Jason listened joyfully as Tommy's tone went from confused to realizing, to realizing what he was realizing, to absolute horror.

"Uh, I have to go," Tommy stuttered quickly.

"Whaaat?" Jason whined, sounding disappointment, but still smiling widely. "Why?"

"I need to fortify my house."

"But…we haven't talked in, like, weeks!"

"Bye Jase. Oh, hey, how's Trini?" Tommy added quickly, figuring since they hadn't talked in weeks, he had better ask.

"Pregnant," Jason shrugged, as if that explained it all. "You know."

"Um, no, but okay. Bye."

"Later!"

After hanging up, Jason sat at the kitchen table a little while longer, occasionally taking a drink and smiling every once in a while at the thought of Tommy running around his house, looking for a place to hide. For Tommy's sake, Jason hoped he never told Zack about the secret lair in his basement, although Zack would probably figure it out after Tommy didn't show up for a few days. After all, it is _Tommy _they were dealing with here.

Wide awake and in no mood to try and fall asleep again, Jason decided to sit on the front porch and watch the sun rise so he could see all the different colors of the sky. It seemed appropriate for the events of the night.

As he was getting up, Trini walked in.

"Well hello Ms. Take-it-outside," Jason said.

"That's _Mrs. _Take-it-outside to you," Trini said. She stopped when she saw he was holding a beer.

"What?" Jason said shrugging. "I think it's appropriate," he defended himself. "Want me to get you something?"

"All this talk of black makes me want licorice," she said, smiling sweetly at him.

"Well, I think we have some."

"Black. Not red."

"Um…right…guess I'm going to the store then, huh?"

"Thanks Jason," Trini said, handing him his keys and kissing him on the cheek. "Junior thanks you too."

"Hmph. Junior's grounded as soon as he's old enough to have anywhere to go."


	2. Chapter 2

As Jason roamed the candy aisles of the 24 hour Super Wal-Mart looking for some black licorice, he ran into the last person he thought he would see...Zack.

"Hello there, Zachary," Jason said cheerfully, walking up to him.

"Hey Jase," Zack did a double take. "Jason! Hey man, sorry about the late call, but I just needed to be sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me or anything…hey, I thought you were going back to bed?"

"Pregnant wife food run," Jason explained, reaching to grab a few bags of black licorice from the shelf next to them. "What about you?"

"Looking for weapons."

"Right. The gun department's over there…"

"No, I mean, something good. Something that will get the job done. Something that doesn't require the mysterious re-resurrection of a giant house crushing zord," Zack said crazily.

"And…a gun isn't good enough to get the job done?" Jason asked confused.

"Not if he's…_morphed_," Zack shuddered at the word. "Ugh, I can't believe I'm thinking of Tommy as a black. What an asshole."

"Because he's a black?"

"Because he didn't _ask _to be a black!"

"Zack, I really don't see what the big deal is. Besides, I would really appreciate it if my kid's godfather was _alive_ for the Baptism."

Zack stared at him, momentarily forgetting his own problem. "Tommy's going to be godfather?"

"If he's alive, yeah. Just tell me now, are you going to kill him? Because then I need to make plans to get Billy back here as a backup, and I've only got a few months left to fly him in from Aquitar."

"But Trini told me that Kim was going to be godmother," Zack said, ignoring Jason's question.

"Yeah…so…?"

"Tommy and Kimberly?"

"Yep. Brilliant, huh?"

"Um, no."

"Well, why not?" Jason said defensively. "They're both completely single and have been for years, on good terms with their ex-significant others, and I thought having them together as best man and maid of honor was going to do it for sure, but they've been dancing around each other since my wedding. As far as I'm concerned, if it doesn't happen soon, I'm going to have them both take care of Trini the next time she's pregnant. Lemme tell ya, it's not fun," he finished dryly, holding up a bag of licorice to prove his point.

"The next time?" Zack asked slyly.

"Shut up," Jason said, pointing the bag at his face. "Don't you have shopping to do?"

But Zack just followed the movement of Jason's hand that was waving around the bag of candy. The bag of _black _candy…

"Hey, what is that?" he asked Jason.

"Huh? Oh, licorice. Trini wants it black, not red, after that lovely color revelation earlier this evening."

"Hmm…black licorice," Zack said as if he was plotting something.

They both looked down at the few bags Jason was holding, then up at each other and smiled evilly.

"No," Jason said firmly, but smiling all the same. "We can't."

"You can't," Zack corrected him. "I totally can. Hey, get me a cart."


	3. Chapter 3

**The skittles idea at the end of this chapter was from JasonTKD...thanks!**

A few days later, Tommy pulled up to his secluded house after school to see a delivery truck that seemed to have just arrived. The driver was coming down the front steps and smiling at him. Tommy got out and walked up to him.

"Why good afternoon," the driver said cheerfully. "Dr. Thomas M.C. Oliver?"

"That's me," Tommy said, signing where the driver pointed on his clipboard.

"Where do you want it?" the driver asked. Just then, they could both hear the phone ringing inside.

"Uh, just leave it by the porch, thanks," Tommy said, rushing in to answer the phone.

"No problem," the driver called after him. "Have a great day!"

"Thanks, you too!" Tommy called over his shoulder.

By the time he made it to the front door, found the right key (he had recently undergone a major lock change process), and found the phone, the answering machine had already picked it up.

"Hey Tommy!" an all too familiar voice sang out.

_Oh no… _Tommy thought, instinctively stopping in his tracks and spinning around to check if there was someone standing behind him, grabbing the butter knife he had forgot to put in the dishwasher that morning, ready to strike. _He found me…_

"It's me, Zack, the best black ranger ever. I'm just calling to say hello. Also, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go crazy in my last phone call at such a ridiculous hour, and you were right to not pick it up, or even call me back. I overreacted. Anyhow, just to show you there are no hard feelings, I would like to say on behalf of all of your black predecessors, welcome to the club, Doctor Thomas M.C. Oliver! Your initiation package should be arriving shortly! Later, yo!"

_My what? _Tommy thought curiously. _Initiation package? Since when are we supposed to send initiation packages? _He thought back to Jason's visit the previous day, in which he had thrown a half-eaten bag of red Twizzlers to an over-joyed Connor, claiming that they were making Trini sick and she had demanded he get rid of them, but other than that…rangers weren't supposed to give initiation packages to the new wearer of the color…were they? If so, he was majorly behind.

And what does he mean Thomas M.C.? _My initials aren't M.C. Wait, M.C…that sounds familiar…where have I heard the initials M.C. recently?_

Suddenly, he remembered the delivery man out front. Fearful of whatever was sitting on his porch right this very moment, he ran through the house to try and stop the delivery, even though it had been almost five minutes and it must be too late. Surprisingly, the truck was only just pulling away when Tommy burst through the front door. Wondering what had taken so long, he looked down to see where the package was. He didn't see it right away at his feet, so he walked down the stairs to look for it, just as Connor's car pulled up and the three younger rangers piled out. It was then that he noticed the _multiple_ boxes stacked neatly all about his entire front yard. There were stacks upon stacks of boxes everywhere.

"Whoa, dude," Connor said. "Did Jason decide to help you clean out your attic after we left yesterday or something?"

"Don't call me dude," Tommy muttered absentmindedly, while slowly walking around, looking suspiciously at each box as he passed it. Ethan walked up to one box and went to open it, or pick it up, or something that he never got to do because Tommy pointed at him and snapped "_Don't touch that!"_

Ethan jumped back. "Sorry! I mean, why? I mean, sorry!"

"Don't. Touch. Anything."

He cautiously walked to the nearest box and waved his hands around it, not sure what he was looking for, but it was the one with the addressed envelope on it, so he figured it must be the one he was supposed to open first. After making sure there were no trip wires or anything, he slowly pulled out the piece of paper. The curious, and now amused, teenagers read over his shoulder.

**This is to certify that Doctor Thomas M.C. Oliver is hereby initiated into The Cult of The Blacks, who are also the most awesome people in the universe. The following signatures are the current members who approve of this great happening in the history of The Blacks:  
>Zachary Taylor, MMPR I<br>Adam Park, MMPR II  
>Corcus, MMAR<br>Carlos Vallerte, PRIS  
>Daniel Delgado, PRWF<strong>

Tommy stood there, not moving, and re-read the letter several times before Ethan broke him out of his trance.

"Hey Dr. O, I didn't know your initials are M.C. What does it stand for?"

"_Multi-colored," _Tommy hissed slowly and quietly.

"Well that's a weird middle name," Connor said obliviously. "And that guy doesn't even have a middle name," he pointed to Corcus. "Or a last name for that matter. Poor guy. And what the heck's a 'pris'? Hey, wait…you're not even black, why are you being initiated into this thing for black people?"

Kira poked him. "He's the black _ranger._ Weren't you paying attention to the video?"

"Nah," Ethan spoke up again. "That was the day he was obsessed with getting his brother's ninja kick down, remember? Hey, what's in the boxes anyway? And how come I didn't get anything from the former blues? Kira, have you gotten anything yellow in the mail recently?"

Tommy ignored them as he quickly reached out to the nearest box. He practically tore it open, and the four of them stared down at its contents.

"Wow," Connor said sarcastically, pulling away. "Those blacks sure have a sense of humor. Almost makes me regret being born white. Ow! Hey-Cut it out, Kira!"

As the three young rangers made their way to raid Tommy's kitchen, he just stood there and stared at the box. He then went around the yard, opening every few as he went. By the time he was finished, Hayley had pulled in behind Connor's car.

"Hey, Tommy. Whoa. Who loves you so much? And what is it?"

Tommy looked at her and picked a bag up out of the nearest box.

"Licorice," he muttered. "He sent me five dozen boxes of it…five dozen boxes…filled with bags...of black licorice."

As he stood there staring at the single bag of black licorice in his hand, another delivery truck pulled into his driveway. His head snapped up.

"Oh no," he said dreadfully. "Hayley-hide me!" he said, darting behind her.

"It's just a delivery truck," Hayley said, rolling her eyes, getting sick of constantly hearing how the first black ranger wanted to brutally murder her best friend. "I'd be a little more worried if it was Zack himself."

"But what if Zack had himself delivered?!" Tommy said frantically, stepping closer to the sanctuary that was his house. "Remember that year he thought it would be funny to jump out of Trini's birthday cake?!"

A few moments later, however, the delivery man jumped out the front seat carrying a somewhat small package. "Package for Tommy Oliver?" he asked Hayley uncertainly, looking around at all of the delivery boxes already piled on the front lawn.

"Hiding behind that one," she said, gesturing behind her. "Don't mind him, he's bothered because one of his closest friends sent him candy. Personally, I would be rejoicing if someone sent me sugar loaded stuff that would rot my teeth, but that's just me..."

"Yeah, no kidding," the delivery man muttered. "Um, Tommy Oliver?" he asked the nearest stack of boxes.

"Over here!" a hand shot up from behind a different stack. "What's in the box?"

"Uh," the man said, looking at Hayley for reassurance. She just shrugged. "I don't actually know...I just deliver them. But it does say perishable on my notes sheet, so that means food."

"You can keep it," the stack of boxes said. Suddenly, he stood up. "Actually, give it to me, and I'll give it to Connor. It might be poisoned."

The delivery man looked helplessly at Hayley, who just rolled her eyes. "Like I said, don't mind him."

As Tommy was signing for this new package, Connor noticed the truck through the living room window. "Hey, there's another delivery for Dr O," he called to Ethan and Kira.

"Really?" Ethan asked. "I wonder what's in this one...?"

As they bunched in front of the window, they watched as Tommy flipped it over to look at the return address, and then visibly relaxed.

"Well," Ethan said disappointedly. "He looks rather calm. It must not be as good as a bazillion bags of licorice."

They went back into the kitchen, not knowing that they were missing one of the biggest meltdowns in Dr. Oliver history. Hayley jumped back as Tommy threw his head back and yelled "JASON LEE SCOTT I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" before dropping the package and storming into the house, kicking a few boxes as he went. Hayley stared after him for a moment, then shook her head and leaned down to pick up the small package from Jason.

_Dear Captain Technicolor, _the note inside said. _You know how I warned you about Zack? Well, I felt guilty because I kind of gave him the idea. By now I may or may not have come by to get rid of the food that Trini doesn't want around (seriously man, you need to find the grocery store in Reefside…last time I was at your house I thought I was going to starve to death), so if I show up and you can't resist the urge to kill me, please warn Trini so she can warn me so I just don't come visit you. Thanks! Good luck on your quest to carry on the legacy of the multi-colored people of the world! –Jason_

Hayley laughed to herself as she peeked in the box and saw what Jason had stashed between the bubble wrap. She took the bubble wrap and stuffed it in her purse, thinking that she could use it later to distract/amuse Connor, before setting the small box on top of a larger one.

And there it remained until Tommy got around to cleaning the yard…five dozen boxes of black licorice, and a single party-sized bag of Skittles.


End file.
